We have a dual tuner HD Tivo, which is perfectly fine most of the time in terms of covering what we want to watch, but occasionally we run into the problem of three shows at the same time. This is the second season in a row that Monday nights at 10 pm air three shows that my wife and I are interested in: Hawaii 5-0, Castle, and Revolution. (Last season, in the spring, Smash was on the channel now airs Revolution.)

Last week, Revolution was the only one airing a new episode, so we got to check it out, and it intrigued us enough to keep the season pass. So we were left to decide between Castle and H50 as to which to keep on the TiVo, and which to watch online or sporadically when the other two are reruns.

My wife preferred Castle, because she thinks H50 is way too over the top. I preferred H50 for the following reasons:

- Hawaii in HD >>> New York
- H50 is supposed to over the top -- the whole point of it is to see what superhuman feats Steve McGarrett accomplishes this week! (Other than Jack Bauer, is there any TV character as uber-competent as McGarrett?)
- although both are episodic with some minimal long-term arc, the whole mystery of Beckett's mom's murder has gotten really tedious, especially when the deaths of supposed last person to know the truth turn out not to be dead ends
- yes, Ryan and Esposito are a funny pair, but so too are McGarrett and Williams
- Grace Park > Stana Katic

In the end, my wife relented because of the first point, figuring that Castle would lose less on the computer screen. However, she's also getting impatient with Revolution, so perhaps this will resolve itself in short order.

Not real common but the occasional show has had reruns on weekends. Usually Saturday nights.

Worst case keep the 2 well established shows and catch Revolution via reruns? That way if it were to get canceled then nothing lost. Plus you'll have something new to watch when everything else is being rerun.

The Saturday night repeats are usually done during the offseason or as a temporary situation early on in the new season. I wouldn't count on that as a full season alternative. Out of the 3 shows mentioned only Revolution is being repeated Saturday at 8pm. None of them are on the following Saturday.

I've had to relegate Castle to one of my S2's because of the same conflict.

Unless I'm mistaken, ABC is one of the few networks without an encore programming block somewhere on their schedule. Even if they did, "Castle" repeats don't generally get particularly good ratings, so I can't see them including "Castle" in an encore programming block if they had one.

NBC's Saturday prime time is entirely encore programming. That said, I wouldn't plan a schedule around it; there is no one show permanently scheduled to be repeated during those hours. NBC could decide on a moment's notice to change what shows re-air on Saturdays.

CBS only chooses to encore their crime shows on Saturdays.

FOX is the only one of the four that I'm aware of has encore programming in the late-night block.

Yeah, I've been burned in the past trying to rely on the repeats (manually rescheduling from the To Do list). TOTALLY vague guestimate -- within a few days, it's probably valid. Maybe even almost a week (e.g. Monday -> Saturday rerun). But for NEXT weekend's rerun of THIS week's episode, which sometimes happens? don't rely on it.

Unless I'm mistaken, ABC is one of the few networks without an encore programming block somewhere on their schedule. Even if they did, "Castle" repeats don't generally get particularly good ratings, so I can't see them including "Castle" in an encore programming block if they had one.

NBC's Saturday prime time is entirely encore programming. That said, I wouldn't plan a schedule around it; there is no one show permanently scheduled to be repeated during those hours. NBC could decide on a moment's notice to change what shows re-air on Saturdays.

CBS only chooses to encore their crime shows on Saturdays.

FOX is the only one of the four that I'm aware of has encore programming in the late-night block.

Otherwise does your provider have any on demand stuff? On directv I can get abc and NBC shows, but when they show up is dicey. So if it were me and I didn't drop h50 I would figure out my best on demand shot for the other two and record the third.

Seriously though, whenever I have an issue like this, I download the show off usenet. Usually a 720p file and I stream it to my Blu-ray player. It is actually a better experience since the commercials are cutout. Video is still HD and if there is 5.1 audio, it will be there.

Mob Doctor got dropped in my schedule due to this problem. Not a great loss. I would check the places that provide free viewings. CBS is the channel that seems the least generous in that regard so if one of the shows is in CBS, I would rely on my Tivo for that one.